A better covenant, a greater duty.

As Christians, we enjoy a much better covenant with God than the children of Israel. The covenant they have requires them to find and render a suitable sacrifice, and the sacrifice they make only covers their sins for a certain period of time. We enjoy the privileges brought by the PERFECT sacrifice, the blood of Jesus. Our sins are not covered, our sins are erased. This is just one of the ways our New Covenant is far superior to the Old Covenant. Another great advantage we enjoy under this new covenant is the right to face our accuser. We have the right to defend ourselves against Satan and his attacks.

The Israelites of the Old Testament had no concept or awareness of Satan. Satan makes an appearance in Genesis and that's the last time we see him interacting with the people of the Old Testament. We see him again in the book of Job, but Satan's not interacting with Job and Job is not even aware of Satan's activities. Job thinks it's God doing all this to him. This ability to see who is attacking us is a great advantage. We know (or should know) that when hard times afflict us, it is not God attacking us, but Satan. We know better than to blame God for things Satan is doing. We know it is Satan that is accusing us. Unlike the Jews of the OT, we know who are accuser is.

This is a privilege in our society that we sometimes take for granted. In our rule of law, we have a right to face our accuser. Not everyone enjoys this privilege. In the military for instance, charges can be brought against you and you can be tried without ever hearing the charges much less facing your accuser. The charges can be classified and the person bringing the charges does not have to present himself at your trial. That puts the accused at quite the disadvantage. In that system, to be accused is to be convicted. So one of the privileges we enjoy as citizens of this country is the right to hear the accusations against us and know who is making the accusation. Additionally, if we are falsely accused, we have the right to sue the accuser and seek damages. These are great privileges that I hope none of us ever need to use. The great news is, we enjoy those same privileges in God.

Unlike the Israelites of the OT, we know who is accusing us and we have the right to defend ourselves against his attacks. This is a privilege so few of us are taking advantage of. It's one thing to not know about a right and fail to use it, it's another thing altogether to just neglect to use a right that's been bought and paid for and laid at your feet. Jesus went to the Cross, and then to grave and then to Hell to win this privilege for us. To just refuse to use it is inexcusable. The only thing you can call that is laziness or fear. We have a right to defend ourselves against our accusers. And to have the right is to have the duty. We are shirking our duty as Sons of God to allow our accuser to lay any charges he wants against us without consequence.

It is negligence in our duty because we are not supposed to spend our days scratching and clawing away at our maintenance expenses. Jesus didn't put this sword and shield in our hand just to get the cable bill and car payment made. We are supposed to be using our resources to advance the Kingdom. If we are so preoccupied with dealing with the damage we've allowed the enemy to ravage upon our lives, then we don't have the time, energy or resources to do the real work of the Kingdom. We were not left here to fight the battle of the phone bill. We are put here to fight the good fight for men's souls. It is our right, privilege and duty to put the devil under our feet and never let him up!!

If he tries to plant a thought of fear or despair in our mind, don't waste time wailing and crying to God about what are we gonna do. Take that thought captive, banish it with the Word of God and then set your mind back on things above.

If he tries to steal $500 from you for a new transmission, don't wail and cry to God about how every time you save up ten dollars you get a bill for twenty. Don't waste any time blaming God or getting mad at God about how things never work out for you. Do your duty as a soldier, use the weapons you've been given. What's our weapon in the battle of lack? Tithing and giving. If the enemy tries to steal from us, we are to continue to tithe faithfully, find someone we can sow into and believe God to honor that act of faith by meeting that need. Satan's intent is for us to not tithe and give him more entry into our finances. But here's what people of faith do in that situation. Not only do we continue to tithe but we also find a single mother whose drowning in diaper and daycare debt and get her car tuned up for the winter. We may not have the $500 for a new transmission but we've got $100 to make sure her car has a new battery, spark plugs and wipers. We didn't get our transmission fixed, but we made sure that her car will start for her every morning when she needs it as she driving to one of her three jobs. So now our enemy has not only failed to defeat us, now he's on the run because the single mom is telling everybody she sees about God fixing her car for her! How do you think God feels about things like that? Is God pleased with that? Like I heard someone say one time, I bet he punches lone of the elders in the arm and says "Did you see that? That's my boy!" This is how we win this fight. We win it just by fighting it. That gives God all the license He needs to move into our broken transmission situation and fix it in His abundant way. Don't blame God for your broken transmission. Don't take money away from Kingdom work. Show the devil that when he attacks your finances, that just inspires you to put more of it into the Kingdom. This is our great privilege. Not only can we defend ourselves against our attacker, we can make him pay a penalty for picking on us.

The really great news is we are guaranteed the victory. If we will just stand up to this bully and face him, we'll win! But thanks be to God who always causes us to triumph! All we have to do is not shrink from it. Just do our duty, exercise this great privilege of fighting along side the King of Kings and face the enemy. This is all that is required of us. Let's just resolve in our hearts and minds that when the enemy picks a fight with us, we'll fight him. Let's promise ourselves that we won't bring reproach to the crown and cower in front of our enemy. Let's not be the ones who lets Satan take anything away from the Kingdom without a fight. If he decides to reach his hand into the Kingdom and try to steal something from it on our watch, let's make sure he regrets it. This is our great privilege, and to have the privilege is to have the duty.